MUSCAT, Oman--Vice President Dick Cheney rode an Airstream trailer into Pakistan and Afghanistan, and he rode the Airstream out of Kabul wearing cowboy boots.

He also traveled in the belly of "The Spirit of Strom Thurmond.''
After flying more than halfway around the world in the standard-issue Air Force Two, a military version of the Boeing 757-200 whose electrical system had started acting up someplace between Sydney and Singapore, the vice president boarded a much less identifiable military transport for quick trips in and out of true hot spots: Islamabad, Pakistan, and Bagram Air Base and Kabul in Afghanistan.

This particular C-17, a hulking gray cargo jet out of Charleston, S.C., is dubbed The Spirit of Strom Thurmond, with the name painted decoratively in black above the front passenger door where Cheney boarded.

Inside, the vice president's senior staff--as well as the deputy director of the CIA, Stephen Kappes--sat in airliner-style seats that had been installed in the forward section of the cargo bay.

The C-17 that ferried Cheney from Oman to Pakistan to Afghanistan and back to Oman. Photo by Mark Silva

Behind them, a silvery-steel-skinned trailer minus wheels had been slid into place, chained down at the floor and strapped in with canvas belting. This wasn't your average RV.

It actually was three pods slid together to form a home away from home. But it bore the unmistakable aerodynamic shape of America's favorite trailer. And it was indeed a product of Airstream Inc., out of Jackson Center, Ohio, with an official stamp of inspection by the Air Force Research Laboratory.

Inside, the wood-paneled cabin has dark blue-gray carpeting and plush gray leather seats, and recessed ceiling lighting. Horizontal shades cover the windows. A Sony TV and DVD player are mounted in the wall above the desk in a cabin that has several comfortable seats that would seem to double for bedding in recline. On the desk below the TV sat a copy of "A History of the English Speaking Peoples Since 1900," by Andrew Roberts, during the brief time the vice president spoke with reporters about Tuesday's attack at Bagram.

As we boarded the aircraft in Oman, Cheney was settled in the Airstream for the nearly three-hour journey to Islamabad in the belly of the Spirit of Strom.

This wasn't nearly as nice as the quarters where the vice president had spent the night before--the Shangri-La resort on the coast of the Gulf of Oman outside Muscat.

All hotels have names. This one earned it.
The resort in this Boca Raton of the Strait of Hormuz is a complex of luxurious hotels nestled along the beach and cradled by a low ridge of steeply sloped, sandy-rock mountains that frame the coastline.

They apparently had to blast serious holes through the hard hills along the coast to build the steep, winding roads leading up and down into the Shangri-La. But this is a country that puts out 750,000 barrels of oil a day.

Oman has long been a low-key ally of the United States. The failed U.S. attempt to rescue 53 American hostages from the former U.S. Embassy in Iran in 1980 was launched from Oman's Masirah air base.

The vice president flew the Spirit of Strom from Oman--leaving not from an air base but from the Royal Flight center at the Muscat airport--and traveled just 30 miles off the coast of Iran en route to Islamabad. He spent less than four hours on the ground in Pakistan, then made an hour-long hop to Bagram in Afghanistan. It was raining when he arrived, and the weather was growing worse by the hour, scuttling plans to travel later that day to Kabul for a meeting with Afghan President Hamid Karzai. Kabul already had snow on the ground.

The Spirit of Strom, and Cheney, spent an unexpected overnight at Bagram. The Spirit sat out on the tarmac overnight, an awesome gray presence in the gloomy wintry mix of rain and snow that grounded the plane until it took off about noon local time Tuesday for the 18-minute flight into Kabul.

Cheney was in the capital for a little more than two hours, meeting Karzai over lunch at the fortified palace. A tray of coffee and juice greeted the American entourage upon arrival, and the formal dining room was set with a long table. The vice president had reached the palace in an armored motorcade that weaved between concrete and sandbag barricades erected along the route.

It was cool in Kabul, and the snow that reportedly had prevented our visit the day before had largely melted. The sun was peeking out through the cloud cover as Cheney's motorcade left the palace, kicking up a cloud as it slalomed its way back to the airport, and the Spirit of Strom.

Comments

A first hand look. What a great idea. They aren't flowers they're throwing at ya!

Posted by: bill r. | Feb 27, 2007 7:58:14 AM&nbsp

With your earlier travelogue installment of spending the night in Afghanistan in mind, one can only imagine how the country got it's name:

"O man, this hot shower feels good!!!"

Posted by: Kenny Bunkport | Feb 27, 2007 8:06:09 AM&nbsp

According to Ann Coulter, Afghanistan is going "swimmingly".

And remind me again why we removed the vast majority of our forces from Afghanistan to invade Iraq? I thought everything was hunky-dory there. And how ironic is it that the Bush Administration demand that it sacrifice more lives to "finish" the war in Iraq while it didn't even have the patience to finish the war in Afghanistan.

Posted by: Neil | Feb 27, 2007 9:06:12 AM&nbsp

Neil,

Good point re. Afg. war. It's just getting started.

But GWB will not 'hit the trifecta ' until the Iran War cranks up.
Welcome to the three front war.

Posted by: C.Morris | Feb 27, 2007 10:07:01 AM&nbsp

"And remind me again why we removed the vast majority of our forces from Afghanistan to invade Iraq?"

I wish people would at least once bother to get their facts straight before they come on here and yap. Fact: We did not remove the vast majority of troops from Afghanistan to invade Iraq. During the first 2 years of the operation (generally pre-Iraq invasion) the number of troops rarely got over 10,000 and only did so in passing as new units replaced old ones. Post invasion of Iraq troop strength has almost triplled. Facts are such inconvenient things aren't they neil....

"The Spirit of Strom Thurmond" -- Does that mean Cheney started mumbling incoherently when he got inside? Did he sprout hair on his chrome dome, only it came out orange? Did he get to renew his vampirical energy by drinking the blood of some black child instead of the usual Afghan or Iraqi one?

Posted by: Bukko in Australia | Feb 27, 2007 3:17:43 PM&nbsp

It is true, chris, that the US never had the numbers of troops in Afghanistan that it had (has) in Iraq. But the spirit of what Neil wrote is correct: We never committed the numbers of troops to Afghanistan that were necessary to do the job right because they were needed in Iraq.

The point is fairly simple: Afghanistan, where the US actually had a slim but realistic chance to do something good, was shoved to the side. Iraq, a place in which the US never had the faintest hope of accomplishing anything positive, has sucked up all of our resources.

Hubris... ego... ideology... all stubborn things, aren't they?

Posted by: Elizabeth Bennet | Feb 27, 2007 3:40:08 PM&nbsp

Jeff,

Care to explain how the Taliban is still strong enough to attack our major base in Afghanistan, during a period of increased security due to Cheney's visit, after a full 5 years of war under this Administtrations leadership?

Why haven't we finished the job there Jeff? Remeber to believe the Republicans when they say they are winning the War on Terror. Mission Accomplished!

Posted by: Tony | Feb 27, 2007 3:44:12 PM&nbsp

Jeff/Bill,

Tell me again Bill,why did we invade Iraq?

P.S I thought you were going to stop posting so you could concentrate on working for Sleepy McCain??
How much is he paying you?

Jeff, you're simply making stuff up. I challenge you to name a single member of the "Democratic leadership" or a single major media source that believes that Islamic terrorism isn't a threat to the United States. Nobody has ever said that.

You might be thinking of the goings-on in Iraq, but that's actually not the same country as Afghanistan.

Posted by: Andy | Feb 27, 2007 4:00:55 PM&nbsp

"Well, it's official, the Taliban tried to take out Cheney"

Did Cheney take the Taliban hunting? I guess Cheney wasn't quick on the draw this time around. :)

Posted by: Richard S. | Feb 27, 2007 4:04:32 PM&nbsp

Remember to believe the media and the Democratic leadership when they say Islamic terrorism isn't a threat to the USA.

Posted by: Jeff | Feb 27, 2007 3:11:34 PM

I don't think anyone has been suggesting there's no threat whatsoever. If you have a single example to the contrary, I'd be interested in seeing it.

What people have said is that Dear Leader's actions in dealing with the threat have been inept, to put it kindly. As Tony correctly notes, this incident provides very persuasive proof of his ineptitude.

Posted by: a blinkin | Feb 27, 2007 4:04:49 PM&nbsp

Chris,

The smart thing to do would have been to keep the pressure on in Afg., adding troops if needed. There is where the terrorists were/are, and their leader OBL was.

Meanwhile we could have installed an anti-Shia/Iranian junta in Baghdad as a bulwark against Iran. Perhaps the Baath/Sunni party.

Oops, we already had that in place. It was called the Saddam regime. But we blew it all away. Now we are facing a two front war, with a third on the horizon, in Iran.

Good thinking GWB.

This is just a prediction, based on whispers in the press. Are we shifting support back to the Sunni's and Baathists in the ME?
We seem to keep giving the Malaki regime 'mission impossible', like asking a snake to eat it's own tail.

Sounds illogical, but we now have to try to defeat Greater Iran, our own neo-clown creation. We will probably end up arming Sunni insurgents with ties to . . . . . . al Quaida.

Posted by: C.Morris | Feb 27, 2007 4:12:52 PM&nbsp

I think it's good for Cheney to get a feel for what the troops he sent to Iraq based on a lie have to deal with every single day.

Posted by: John E. | Feb 27, 2007 4:19:44 PM&nbsp

Where's all the Republicans who were so outraged when it was reported, incorrectly, that Nancy Pelosi had requested a 757 to travel in? They accused her of being extravagant and wanting to travel in the lap of luxury.

Cheney has to have a special luxury RV loaded into the transport aircraft and not a peep.

Why couldn't he have sat in the same type of seats as everyone else? Why was the RV built at all? Where's the outrage Republicans?

Posted by: Tony | Feb 27, 2007 4:32:55 PM&nbsp

It is long past time for Mr. Cheney to take his bone-chilling, baby-scaring, The Penguin meets Mr. Burns meets The Emperor from Star Wars' visage and apocalyptic world view back to his undisclosed location to retreat forever from public life. He is the single darkest and most malevolent figure I have ever seen in American politics, forcing one to urn for the good ol' days of Tricky Dick Nixon and other lesser evils.

Posted by: Bryan | Feb 27, 2007 7:01:38 PM&nbsp

Remember to believe the media and the Democratic leadership when they say Islamic terrorism isn't a threat to the USA.

Earth to Jeff, is that the best you could come up with? Now that I think about it that could probably get you a job in the administration. Keep up the misinformation Jeff. Mission accomplished!

Posted by: Dunny Rummy | Feb 27, 2007 7:08:28 PM&nbsp

All the Bush-bashers will likely ignore that it was never suggested or planned that masses of US troops 'liberate' Afghanistan. The US troops are in support of the former Afghan rebels who have the backing of a large majority of the Afghani people. Without rival religious militias, Afghanistan has only to ward off the former Taliban supporters who are armed by Pakistani and Iranian groups (who oppose a Western democratic society). After enduring the Taliban for years, I doubt many of the Afghani people would want the return of a religious autocracy there.

Posted by: Don GOP | Feb 27, 2007 7:54:02 PM&nbsp

Hard not to imagine what could have been. If GWB had kept his 'eye on the prize', OBL, we would have had virtually the whole world behind us, and all our important allies. We wouldn't have had to commit over two trillion dollars (if you include estimates of future care for the severely wounded), nor more than 3,000 U.S. troops (and counting) to the Iraq fiasco. Oh, and a few hundred thousand Iraqi civilians would still be breathing.

But things are so much better now, in both countries. Afghanistan's heroin trade has never been more robust. The Taliban is making a comeback. OBL is still laughing his ass off, and recruitment of future terrorist has never been easier. Plus Al Qaeda has a huge new training ground, Iraq.

Meanwhile in Iraq, people still can't get reliable electricity, sewer treatment, clean water. People are being blown up at universities, at the market, at work, at the Mosque, on the street, in their homes, in their vehicles. Yeah, you're doing a heckeva job, Georgie. Somehow, those cute little lines from you (Rove's brain) and the RRR echo chamber, just don't quite explain it away. What is it, 'we've got to fight them there, so we don't have to fight them in our back yards'.

Just like every venture he ever engaged in, any business he ever managed, and ran into the ground, GWB and his cronies have done the same in this country and abroad. Only this time, neither Daddy, nor even Daddy's Saudi friends, can bail him out. Why are people still defending this administration? Oh, and let's not forget, Bush is the only U.S. president who thought he could wage war, cut taxes, and reduce the budget deficit in half simultainiously. Even Reagan, with his 'voo-doo' economics, wouldn't be that reckless.'Hail to the Chief (chimp)', he's an inspiration to all of us, especially, Al Qaeda.

Oh, I can't say that?, when every other day Bush, Cheney, and the reckless rest, are accusing Nancy Pelosi and democrats in congress of being Al Qaeda's ally. Please!

Posted by: dt | Feb 27, 2007 7:59:52 PM&nbsp

"Care to explain how the Taliban is still strong enough to attack our major base in Afghanistan, during a period of increased security due to Cheney's visit, after a full 5 years of war under this Administtrations leadership?"

Posted by: Tony | Feb 27, 2007 3:44:12 PM

One guy with a bomb.

How strong does that make the Taliban?

How many troops would it have taken (or take now)to wipe out every Taliban soldier/simpathizer that could strap on a bomb?

Posted by: Stan | Feb 27, 2007 9:42:37 PM&nbsp

That is not even funny.

TWO references in a matter of days to Strom Thurmond's heretofore unknown and unexpected spawn - or where it came from anyway?

Crazy Unka Dick didn't just travel in the apparently high profile Spirit of Strom Thurmond - but he just had to travel in the belly of it. And it wasn't your average belly.

I don't even want to know what the hell they're talking about in the last paragraph. That's some of the filthiest shite that's ever been written about a vice-president.

Originally posted: February 27, 2007
Cheney's bumpy ride

Posted by Mark Silva at 6:44 a.m. CST

MUSCAT, Oman--Vice President Dick Cheney rode an Airstream trailer into Pakistan and Afghanistan, and he rode the Airstream out of Kabul wearing cowboy boots.

He also traveled in the belly of "The Spirit of Strom Thurmond.''
After flying more than halfway around the world in the standard-issue Air Force Two, a military version of the Boeing 757-200 whose electrical system had started acting up someplace between Sydney and Singapore, the vice president boarded a much less identifiable military transport for quick trips in and out of true hot spots: Islamabad, Pakistan, and Bagram Air Base and Kabul in Afghanistan.

This particular C-17, a hulking gray cargo jet out of Charleston, S.C., is dubbed The Spirit of Strom Thurmond, with the name painted decoratively in black above the front passenger door where Cheney boarded.

Inside, the vice president's senior staff--as well as the deputy director of the CIA, Stephen Kappes--sat in airliner-style seats that had been installed in the forward section of the cargo bay.

Behind them, a silvery-steel-skinned trailer minus wheels had been slid into place, chained down at the floor and strapped in with canvas belting. This wasn't your average RV.

So, will the Commander in Chief George W Bush
proclaim by one of his famous "Signing Statements"
that "Vice President Dick Cheney is now a real
combat veteran and great American hero,for his
bravery under Insurgent fire in Afghanistan!"
Oh well Karl Rove will surely find one of his
forever famous "Mission Accomplished" banners,
to help welcome the former Draft Dodger turned
former Sec of Defense,turned Vice President and
Bush Chickenhawk Delusional Dick Cheney back to
Washington DC as part of the Awards Cermony as
President & Commander in Chief George W Bush
proudly pins The Congressional Medal of Honor
and The Presidential Medal Of Freedom on Cheney!
So will Bush & Rove also give the new Combat
Hero And Administration Action Figure Cheney
a huge Victory Parade or do we still even have
any troops left to use for a parade,what with
so many deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan?

Posted by: Ralph | Feb 27, 2007 11:49:03 PM&nbsp

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